Lifestyle and Leisure
Sydney road congestion worsens
Matt French considers how Sydneysiders are coping with more vehicles on the citys roads
Sydney is the largest city in Australia and as such suffers the perennial problem experienced by its counterparts all over the world traffic. Increasing amounts of traffic on the roads is the scourge of city councils in London, Paris, New York and countless other cities in all four corners of the globe, and each have come up with their own method of tackling the problem.
Notoriously, it takes longer to cross central London today than it did in the time of the first motor car. To try and rectify this sorry state of affairs current Mayor of London (at the time of writing) Ken Livingstone introduced the congestion charge to try and discourage motorists from entering the city. This scheme has enjoyed some success. Last month London won a prestigious international award for the success of the 'C' charge. The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy praised the capital for reducing traffic in the zone by 21 per cent, increasing bus use across London by 45 per cent and bicycle use by 83 per cent since 2000.
Elsewhere in the world, the authority in charge of the capital of South Korea, Seoul, took even more drastic measures to reduce the number of cars in the city, and improve the quality of life for residents in the process. The city authorities tore down an elevated, six-lane motorway running through the heart of the city and replaced it with a park beside a river. The road had carried approximately 160,000 cars a day, but through improving the public bus services predicted traffic jams have never materialised.
So, how has Sydney attempted to tackle the issue?
When I lived in Sydney (from 2005 to 2006) though I could not drive at the time I was well aware that extensive building was underway to try and tackle the city's traffic issues. I was often caught up in traffic jams while on buses into the city centre and I passed countless ongoing roadworks when travelling in the cars of friends and my Australian-based family. In fact, while I was living in the city, local authorities faced huge embarrassment after a section of Sydney's Lane Cove Tunnel project one of many billion dollar-plus attempts at improving traffic conditions collapsed, taking part of a block of flats with it. However, having not driven while I was in the city, perhaps I am not the best judge of the state of Sydney traffic. "I have seen a lot of changes to the road system in this city," says Rainer, who has been a taxi driver in Sydney for the last 23 years and so is more than qualified to comment on the state of the city's roads. "One has to realise that Sydney, as opposed to all the other towns in this country, was never planned out from the start, it started as a settlement around what is now Circular Quay and just grew from there."
In this respect even though it is much younger modern day Sydney faces the same problems as modern day London both having grown up at a time when roads were built to cope with very different conditions. "Today we are looking at a situation where a peak hour trip from the City to Parramatta a business centre some 20 kilometres away is slower than it was 200 years ago in a horse and buggy," Rainer explains. Conditions on Sydney roads have got worse in recent years due to the ever-increasing number of vehicles the over-stretched network is forced to handle. "During the mid-nineties the price of second-hand cars collapsed and most families started running two or three cars per household, and since then the traffic and trip times have increased enormously," Rainer comments. "Even in my case the trip by car will take 15 minutes, and I live only a few kilometres from the city centre." Even I noticed, though, that the Sydney city authorities have not laid idly-by while driving conditions have become completely unworkable. "The government has tried over the years to build a better road system and has done a lot of good work to alleviate the traffic problems," Rainer admits. "However, in recent times the city government has contracted the construction of freeways and motorways to private companies. "Now the companies that own these roads charge like a wounded bull, and if you live in the north-west section of Sydney then get ready to pay AUS$17 daily for your trip into the city centre."
Not everything is doom-and-gloom, though. The ill-fated Lane Cove Tunnel was actually completed ahead of schedule (a rarity in the UK) and now connects the M2 Motorway at North Ryde with the Gore Hill Freeway at Artarmon. Since its opening in March 2007, studies have shown that the tunnel has had the desired effect of improving the flow between the Sydney CBD and the north-western suburbs in the Hills District and the northern parts of Western Sydney some travel times have been cut by up to 17 minutes and save motorists over AUS$4 per trip. Authorities say the Sydney Harbour Tunnel has also reduced traffic congestion in and out of the city centre. Rainer, too, admits that things could be a lot worse in Sydney. "I don't want to whinge too much about the state of traffic in Sydney, peak hour is a squeeze, but not nearly as bad as other major cities like London or Paris," he comments. "Also, outside peak-hour traffic the roads and travelling times are good and efficient. Plus the sun is out most of the time."
The powers that be in Sydney are also willing to attempt radical changes as part of continuing attempts to improve conditions further. Demolition of the Cahill Expressway one of Sydney's busiest roads (pictured under construction above) has recently been suggested by the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore. The idea of pulling the road down was made principally for aesthetic reasons, but the experience of Seoul has shown that pulling down motorways can also ease congestion. Sydney authorities are willing to build and demolish to tackle city traffic problems and, though driving in the city may not be easy, at least things are improving.
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